ITV Discussion Thread

Yet another ITV company STV Has bold, boring BIG S presentation,
yet it so much better than ITV1, it may be boring but its still bold, each one actully means something, and that's why it doesn't need changing up here,

STV are taking more risk, like the New Five thirty show, and the moving around of daytime show, There actully moved there Scottish game show to monday 8pm with tonight - Tuesday at 10.40pm.

The only problem I seeing is those new 1 hour taggart

The idea of more programmes like "Life on Mars" is often bought up - but the problem is that was nearly three years ago. ITV need to be setting the trends, not catching up - and nothing so far has suggested that.


It's also quite ironic how ITV's most successful programme of the last couple of years is The Street, shown on BBC1 and actually offered to C4 first. ITV were also behind the excellent Casanova too - so Granada is still making top quality programming, it's just ITV aren't agreeing to screen them.


For the last few years though it's been the ITV Drama Premieres where ITV have had most success, and although there is logic in axing them in an effort to make more returning series, I think what they really needed to do was continue with them (though perhaps fewer), but only commission one-offs and two-parters which could if successful be turned into full series.

It may be costlier in the short term, but in the long term if they get one or two full series out of around 8-10 premieres, it would be a cost worth paying.


I think though the failure of this revamp goes to show it wasn't the weekends that needed the big change - it was (as we said) the weekday schedules which needed reinvigorating.

Or Mr Grade isn't agreeing to screen them. The Comedy Awards is probably still around his HQ somewhere. (Yes, I'm still bitter about it but I never got a proper explanation!).

Well I would argue Moving Wallpaper / Echo Beach is a hugely innovative concept and decent enough in quality - just happens a lot of people aren't happy with it. That said, it is popular with young viewers, which is saddening considering it goes out on Friday evening.



It's a tragedy The Street isn't on ITV1. It's absolutely phenomenal drama. An example of how stupid ITV is/was.



Usually though they are self-contained stories so it wouldn't really work. I'm actually more for longer-running series of 12-14 episodes.

ITV need some reliable shows for primetime. The BBC have EastEnders, Waterloo Road, Holby City, Holby Blue, The One Show, Casualty running practically all year round.

Is it though? ITV were trying to spin the line last week by saying something like 20% of the 3m watching were 16-34, but I don't think that says anything - and for a programme aimed at the age bracket, you'd expect it to be alot higher than what is basically the norm.

And 20% of 3m isn't really any more as the 11% of the 4-5m who used to watch the detective dramas in the slot - and remember they were repeat runs too.


As I've often said you can generally interpret the ratings of any show in such a way as to make it look good - but I can't see how they can make the Moving Wallpaper / Echo Beach figures sound impressive whatever way they try to look at it, and really it would have been a bolder move for ITV to say it's simply not good enough than to recommission it. In fact, recommissioning it suggests ITV are happy with the average and below-par.

Nah. It's sort of a cult show, it just needs a better slot. Friday is a night when tons of people are out. It premiered to 5m on Thursday fgs. Something like 3 million people didn't know it was on Friday or went out, and bam, only the 'in on Friday' oldies watched from then on, waning away because they were, well, old.

Or they saw it on first, thought 'God this is crap' and decided not to bother the next week?

Don't you mean the next day? Apparently audiences for episode 1 of both were rock solid all the way through, very few tired and switched off. I blame ITV for changing the day and for moving it to a day when the core demographic is out.

I know people who record the show and watch it later.

That's the thing though - ITV is supposed to be a mainstream channel. It can't afford "cult" shows in primetime.


And really, moaning about the switch from Thursdays to Fridays two months on is no excuse. It was clear in the schedules that happened, and presumably mentioned at the end of the show itself - and though you could argue it accounted for some of the drop in the first week, it doesn't account for the week on week free fall the ratings have been in.


Yes ITV should be praised for taking the risk with this commission, even if they did screw up the scheduling - but part of taking a risk is admitting when things don't work, and this clearly doesn't.

I think ITV deserve to be praised for MW/EB. It just seems to me that - from some quarters - they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Moving Wallpaper is one of the best comedy offerings to come out of ITV for years. So what if it's apparently more BBC2 or C4 than mainstream? All credit to them for sticking with both shows for their full runs and recomissioning further run(s). All in all, this has got to be doing more good for the channel than the umpteenth repeat of Frost in the same slot.

this sound alot like only fools and horse,

maybe some repeating it later in the year at other slots might work?

An extremely pessimistic article about ITV here:

"ITV insists the senior management team members work seamlessly for the good of the company, but other television executives noted that within days of the new schedule being launched, some senior executives were vilifying Shaps' efforts.

Grade is not immune from criticism either, with some senior executives complaining that he too often refers to past glories when the industry was a cosy duopoly rather than the multi-channel maze it is today."

"The saddest casualty, perhaps, is News at Ten. So far the dizzying new graphics and the gravitas of Sir Trevor McDonald and the charms of Julie Etchingham have failed to woo viewers.

Indeed, ITV's audience share for the 10pm to 10.30pm slot has fallen from 20.8% to 13.4%, with News at Ten averaging 2.6m viewers compared with 2.8m for the 10.30pm news this time last year.

Another television executive said: 'By the time Fincham's changes take effect, ITV will have had two-and-a-half years under Grade. Shareholders have heard plenty of talk about ITV's recovery plan, but the key is in the delivery.

'After years of underperformance, to say we are now doing less badly than we used to isn't much of an achievement.'"

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=431525&in_page_id=3&ct=5

That article must have been written by Brekkie, surely?

Another article detailing recent ITV history: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2008/03/01/cnitv101.xml